Ummm... Newbie Exchange Question

[OrangeSun]

Hey all, I found out about bitcoins last week and spent the whole long weekend reading up on it!  Safe to say I am hooked on to the idea already!

Now I am trying to buy 20-25 coins just to play with, but I have a question: why is everyone using Mt. Gox?  Even when others have better exchange rates?  Is it a tradition / exchange's reputation thing? 
Do you guys recommend bitmarket.eu exchange?  The site looks nice... but I don't know anything else about it.

[M4v3R]

People are using Mt. Gox, because... people are using Mt. Gox. The market got big because of few factors and now if you want to trade on a highly dynamic market, in real time, this is the place for that. But it's not the best for all. For example, here in Poland there is a far better exchange - Bitomat.pl (trading Polish zloty only). It's better, because it's totally free, and your wire money transfer is acknowledged within hours (sometimes even minutes) from sending. These transfers are also free in Poland.

On the other hand, Bitmarket.eu has a different, less dynamic model. You can place offers just like on MtGox, but to exchange actual cash, you have to contact with the other party. This has several advantages, like more anonymity (only the other party knows your private details, you don't expose them to the site), faster first reaction (you don't have to wait for your funds to come up on the site to trade) and more control. It has some disadvantages as well - most importantly - you lose the "real-time" bit, because every trade needs to be handled manually (in terms of exchanging cash). There is also a risk (albeit a small one because of verification system, and soon - rating system) of a fraudulent seller/buyer, but in that case you can contact site support and we will help you.

If you have other questions, feel free to ask.

[OrangeSun]

People are using Mt. Gox, because... people are using Mt. Gox. The market got big because of few factors and now if you want to trade on a highly dynamic market, in real time, this is the place for that. But it's not the best for all. For example, here in Poland there is a far better exchange - Bitomat.pl (trading Polish zloty only). It's better, because it's totally free, and your wire money transfer is acknowledged within hours (sometimes even minutes) from sending. These transfers are also free in Poland.

On the other hand, Bitmarket.eu has a different, less dynamic model. You can place offers just like on MtGox, but to exchange actual cash, you have to contact with the other party. This has several advantages, like more anonymity (only the other party knows your private details, you don't expose them to the site), faster first reaction (you don't have to wait for your funds to come up on the site to trade) and more control. It has some disadvantages as well - most importantly - you lose the "real-time" bit, because every trade needs to be handled manually (in terms of exchanging cash). There is also a risk (albeit a small one because of verification system, and soon - rating system) of a fraudulent seller/buyer, but in that case you can contact site support and we will help you.

If you have other questions, feel free to ask.

This is very helpful, thank you!  Bitomat.pl sounds like everything one would need in an Exchange!

One theory I have for the exchange size difference is that Mt. Gox seems focused on the US market, while all other exchanges are focused on European markets.  US probably accounts for a lion's share of transactions in bitcoin economy. 

[IIOII]

Liquidity at Mt. Gox is highest and payment is easily possible for US and EU - that's all the magic.

Mt. Gox is not bad, but has potential to improve (commission is a bit high).

[Horkabork]

While we're asking newbie questions, is there a way to do stop loss orders at Mt. Gox? If not on the website, then are people using an external program perhaps?

[FractalUniverse]

While we're asking newbie questions, is there a way to do stop loss orders at Mt. Gox? If not on the website, then are people using an external program perhaps?

im not trading there yet so im not sure if it works, but what about placing opposite order to what you have at the price you want to exit with loss?
for example you bought  1BTC at 16.50 an you place sell order 1BTC at 14.50 as your sl?

[xKARELx]

very cool that you are interested in this topic, I myself here not so long ago, but already began to understand a lot, this forum will help you solve many problems, there are so many good people here, good luck to you!







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[minersday]

Oh my fucking good hahaha, this is incredible, i have never thought that someone was going to bump such this old thread, this is insane, and they said that bitcoin was below 15 dollars each one, omg, they should know that now the price is over $6700 and this is still going up day by day, no matter what.
I have been reading a lot of posts from the past, and a lot from Satoshi, this is incredible because those people couldn't knew that this was really going to be a succesfull project, not even those who were introduced in bitcoin since the beggining i guess.

[Sir_Justin]

Lol i was about to reply: Good luck with buying 25 coins. I didn't know this post was from 2011(!!!). awesome i hope this guy bought these 25 onions cause he would be very rich right now! amazing. I like to read these old posts!

[FractalUniverse]

Lol i was about to reply: Good luck with buying 25 coins. I didn't know this post was from 2011(!!!). awesome i hope this guy bought these 25 onions cause he would be very rich right now! amazing. I like to read these old posts!

Well, i knew it right away thats thread necromancy, because I was the last one to reply here back in 2011.
What a change. Where is Mt.gox, where is bitmarket.eu exchange, where is $15 bitcoin. Those were the Days. If I only knew back then whats in the cards for the next 6 years..

[Racey]

Lol i was about to reply: Good luck with buying 25 coins. I didn't know this post was from 2011(!!!). awesome i hope this guy bought these 25 onions cause he would be very rich right now! amazing. I like to read these old posts!

Well, i knew it right away thats thread necromancy, because I was the last one to reply here back in 2011.
What a change. Where is Mt.gox, where is bitmarket.eu exchange, where is $15 bitcoin. Those were the Days. If I only knew back then whats in the cards for the next 6 years..

Just wait till you find out about Mt.gox, really bad/sad news.